HELP!! Pinging Engine!

I own a 1996 Ford Taurus station wagon. There is only 64,000 original kilometers on the vehicle. It has a 3.0L OHV V6 engine.
We went and filled up in Harrison and now my engine pings!! Anywhere between 1500-2000 rpm brings the ping out with full force.
We have tried changing the fuel filter and we thought that was helping. It seems to have only increased my fuel economy. The darn thing still pings! We can't figure it out.
When put on a scanner the timing will not drop below 25 degrees before top dead center. We have tried phoning Ford shops but they have not gotten back to us. We are pulling a trailer this weekend and I am so nervous. The last thing I need is to lose my engine. To throw a rod or melt a piston.
When we put high octane full in the ping decreases dramatically to the point that it is almost non-existent but still there ocasionally.
Anyone else had this problem? HELP!!!!!!! I love my car and I want to fix it. We are pulling our hair out!

Since you said you have a scanner, look at the Mass Air Flow sensor. If it is reading the wrong altitude (usually because of dirt on the "hot" wire) it will cause engine to run too lean and will give the pinging.

the only problem is that if that isn't the problem then we just spent $160!!
It seems like everything is pointing to that problem but we just want to cross all our t's and dot all our i's.
It looks like we will just have to do it though. Better to spend less now then a new engine in the future!

It sounds to me like you got a load of bad gas in Harrison.

Sounds to me like you got poor quality gas or improper mixture and it still hasn't ran out yet.

Bad gas can do very bad things to your car.

The bad gas scenario seems likely.

Also, if you have a steady hand and some brake and electric parts cleaner, or just electric parts cleaner, and a cotton swab, you should be able to clean the sensors of the MAF sensor that way2old mentioned. Oh, you will also need a T-15 or T-20 Torx bit to get the elements out of the MAF housing. Wet the cotton swab with the cleaner and very gently clean the sensor elements. You will notice that the wires for the elements are very small (ie: not real strong) so you will definitely want to be somewhere where you won't get startled or bumped.

If you don't break the elements, you won't hurt anything, and there's a good chance your fuel economy will improve afterwards.

-Rod

the gas should be out by now. It was over three months ago.
We are just going to put the sensor in.

just put 2 bottles of octane boost in it simple enough and next fill up get good gas from like a moble 1
and hope that is all

Pushrod engines have a tendency to ping more, and the 3.0l Vulcan engine does ping. I'd go with higher octane. I'm having a similar problem with my 2001 Taurus and running 89 helped some.